Space industry calls for bolder bets in UK funding strategy

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Orbex boss questions new funding for German start-up as executives call for investment to boost national projects

The UK space agency has come under fire from industry over its latest funding awards, which allocated £33mn to more than 20 companies, including £5mn to the UK subsidiary of a Germany launcher start-up. Phillip Chambers, chief executive of rocket start-up Orbex, questioned the government’s decision to award £5mn to help HyImpulse, a private company based in Germany, launch its suborbital rocket from the SaxaVord spaceport in the Shetland Islands.

“We have been doing a little of everything,” said Alice Bunn, president of the trade body UKspace and chief executive of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. “But now we need to prioritise what we want for a national capability, so we can secure leadership on the global stage.” The comments came in the same week that the National Audit Office, the independent spending watchdog, questioned the effectiveness of the “national space strategy”, published by the previous government in 2021.

 

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